I've got the Q3 since late October and so far I've been very happy with it (LOVE the interface! There's nothing like it!).But for some weird reason thre's been a problem lately and trying to find a solution is driving me nuts.

When I plug it into the computer (Win XP SP3) it takes 5 minutes until the comp manages to put the player into the file manager. Which is itself not that bad (for one of my external harddiscs it takes about as long, so I'm used to waiting *lol*). Then, when it appears with the usual drive letter (l:\ in my case) I can usually upload and download music to the Q3 (which has the latest firmware). However, last night I got the dreaded i/o device error after the usual 5 minutes of waiting. Strangely enough, I still have the usual access to the music files, however, the PC refuses to transfer .doc files (I use the Q3 not only as music player but I also tend to store text-files on it, for safety reasons). I've read that with an i/o error generally you shouldn't have access to the device anymore. Not that I complain, I just think it's weird.

I didn't try to plug it in today but every time I do I'm scared of what will happen *lol*. So - did anyone ever encounter this and if yes, did you solve the problem and how did you do it?! I found a thread on this forum from 2006, involving a Z5 but apparently there was no solution either, so I decided to open a new thread anyway.

Fun fact: After I panicked a bit last night, I tried to plug it into my netbook which runs on Linux. And, lo and behold, it recognizes the Q3 instantly, not just after 5 minutes of searching and I've got instant access to ALL my files. So I suppose it's a Windows problem (which is great because sending in the Q3 for repair would suck). But my question still stands - did anyone encounter it and if you did, how did you solve the problem?